exquisitely formed, and so consonant to every idea she can have of beauty and grace?” “Oh, as to that point,” answered she with a toss of her head, “she will soon discover, if her pride do not stand in her way, that beauty is all fancy, and the face she worships may not be thought worth a second look by another.” “I grant,” answered I, “the justness of your observation in a general way: I know that our ideas of beauty are in many instances local, and depend on taste; I will do more, I will grant, that in many parts of the habitable globe Miss Howard’s personal charms might be regarded as _deformities_: but as she is in a country which secures her from any competition with flat-nosed, long-eared, and black-skinned beauties, I do not see how you can prevent her knowing that she is peculiarly endowed with those external advantages, to which her situation and the acknowledged taste and opinion of those around her, have given the power of attraction and the tribute of admiration.” “You may say what you will,” replied Miss Lucretia, with an asperity of tone in unison with her harsh features; “but I wish from my soul this poor girl had no beauty. We have had enough of that perishable commodity in our family! Besides,” added she, softening her voice, “you appear to have overlooked a lesson which every handsome girl ought to know. I have heard many _sensible men_, Miss Cowley, observe, that the best sauce for the relish of beauty, is the _ignorance_ which the possessor has of its power to call forth admiration, or to attract notice and favour.” “I should have told ‘your sensible men,’” replied I, “that I well knew the taste for ‘Moliere’s Agnes’ was not yet worn out. Ignorance is more friendly to the sensualist than to the moralist; and I always suspect those who wish to see a young woman unconscious of her own advantages. It is also, in my opinion, illiberal, and unjust to conclude that a woman is vain because she is handsome. A weak understanding has, in numberless instances, given to even ugly and deformed women a conceit of themselves, which is as pitiable as it is ridiculous; and we see them daily exhibiting faces and persons with the most entire persuasion of their being attractive, which excite only disgust and ill-natured animadversions. No, no, Madam,” continued I, “beauty does not of necessity make a woman a fool; a plain understanding and a very little experience will teach her to appreciate it justly; but she will, and she ought to bring it into that account of gratitude she owes to her Maker; for it is a good gift, inasmuch as it renders us pleasing in the eyes of our fellow-creatures, and conciliates that affection which would otherwise be languid and careless.”